`A Ball-coachin' Jessie'

Football - NFL

Ex-uf Assistant Coach Ron Zook Is The Man Behind The Defense For The New Orleans Saints.

December 2, 2000|By Chris Harry of The Sentinel Staff

When Ron Zook hit the recruiting trails during his days as a college assistant, it wasn't to sign "players."

"He used to say he's going out to find himself some `ball-playin' Jessies,'" University of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley says. "Well, I'd say Zooker's a `ball-coachin' Jessie.' Just look at him now."

Indeed, look at him now. Zook, often maligned and disparaged during three seasons as defensive coordinator for the Gators, is now the emotionally charged overseer of the New Orleans Saints' defense. That defense has made the Saints one of the most endearing stories of the NFL season.

Last week the Saints tamed the Rams and the NFL's top-ranked offense. Sunday Zook and the Saints get Denver and the league's second-ranked offense.

"It's been great. It's been fun, but it's a long season, boy," Zook says. "And we still got a long way to go."

Last Sunday first-year coach Jim Haslett's Saints took a giant step to making their season even longer, upsetting host St. Louis to seize control of the NFC West. They went into the game without running back Ricky Williams (broken leg) and quarterback Jeff Blake (broken foot), then lost two more starters, cornerback Fred Weary and linebacker Corey Terry, for the season with knee injuries.

"It's a credit to our players and a credit to Jim Haslett the way this team has bonded together," says Zook, 46. "In this business, everyone is held accountable. You can't worry about what happened last week because there's a game this week.

"From the very first meeting we had as a staff, we talked about fighting through adversity. Everybody goes through it, some more than others, but you keep on keepin' on."

Zook should know. In 1991 he left his post as linebackers coach at Ohio State to become Steve Spurrier's defensive coordinator at UF. The Gators won two Southeastern Conference championships, but Spurrier wanted more. Spurrier saw Zook's unit surrendering chunks of yards through the air -- a byproduct of opponents passing to try to overcome big early deficits -- and made Zook the fall guy.

"I just felt that we were disorganized at times," Spurrier says. "Looking back, maybe I should have hung with him longer. Heck, we won the conference in '93."

The Gators also won the SEC in '94 and '95 and at times still looked disorganized on defense. Where they rarely looked that way was on special teams.

Zook, despite a humbling career setback, played the good soldier and channeled any frustrations into his work. UF set school records for blocked punts and became known for its hard-hitting coverage teams.

"That was a very difficult time for him and a lot of people would have approached that situation a different way, but not Ron Zook," says Foley, who remains close friends with Zook. "All he did was go to work and become one of the best special-teams coaches in the country."

Spurrier took notice. So did others. After the '95 season, Pruett left to become head coach at Marshall, and Spurrier promoted Zook back into his old job. Two weeks later, Zook promoted himself. He left to coach special teams for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Zook explained to Spurrier that his coaching career, which included eight stops in its first 16 years, never had kept him in one place very long. Five years with the Gators was a record.

"There were some things that happened I wish wouldn't have happened, but I think everybody's career -- no matter the profession -- goes through those," says Zook, whose contributions to Florida included recruiting six starters on UF's 1996 national-championship team. "I had a chance to stay and didn't. I loved Gainesville. I loved the University of Florida. My family loved it there. And when I was made the coordinator again, I felt I was back to where I thought I should be. But an opportunity came up."

Zook took his emotional style to the Steelers and stayed there through 1998. He spent last year as defensive backs coach with the Kansas City Chiefs but left after one season to join the Saints and Haslett, with whom he worked at Pittsburgh.

New Orleans finished 3-13 last year and ranked 20th in total defense and had no first-round picks to shore things up, thanks to former coach Mike Ditka's blockbuster trade for Williams, a Heisman Trophy winner. Those numbers haven't mattered in 2000.

Through 12 games, the Saints (8-4) rank first in the NFC in total defense and are the league's No. 3 team stopping the run. Veteran defensive linemen Joe Johnson and La'Roi Glover have teamed with rookie defensive end Darren Howard, who starred at St. Petersburg Boca Ciega, to help overtake the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the NFL's most destructive defensive front.

In fact, the Saints now lead the NFL in sacks with 55 and are on pace to break the league's single-season record of 72, set by the venerable 1985 Chicago Bears.

Check out the sidelines when the Saints make a great defensive play and you'll see the same fired-up Zook who ran up and down the sidelines in Gainesville.

"That part of my coaching will never change," he says.

His players don't want it to.

"He has a motor on him, man," New Orleans linebacker Keith Glover says. "He's a non-stop type guy. We feed off him on game day. He's just so emotional. He wants to win just as bad as we do. If you look around the locker room, you'd think he was playing.

"Having him as the D-coordinator, that's a fun deal."

For Zook, it's all been exciting, rewarding, challenging. But it has been so whirlwind that he has had precious few moments to enjoy it.

"My learning curve has been straight up this year," Zook says. "It's the hardest thing I've ever done and one of the most gratifying. When it's all over, maybe I'll take a few weeks to look back and enjoy it."